


You Stole

by modernpatroclus



Series: Four Years Strong [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Olicity Proposal, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, arrow 4x09, dont worry itll get darhker, if u catch my drift, spec fic, the cheese is real guys, wink wink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-04-30 22:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5182499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/modernpatroclus/pseuds/modernpatroclus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spec-fic for the mid-season finale, 4x09, of what we all know will happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. On One Knee

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a short spec-story for 4x09 because I’m so hyped for it like you wouldn’t believe. Not necessarily what I think will happen, so they’re more like wish-fics, I suppose.  
> Something sweet to get me byyyyy, because Wednesdays literally can’t come any slower. There’s a little callback to everyone’s favorite scene from 3x14, which I’m sure they totally talked about on their little trip (which I may have fic’ed before?), but I love it so much that I had to include it.  
> Story title is from “You Stole" by Brand New.  
> Hope you enjoy!

Felicity walks through the crowd of people, her arm in Oliver’s suit-clad one, as they make their way to the front near the podium where Oliver will give yet another speech. They greet some people along the way, sponsors and work acquaintances offering congratulations or hellos.

“Thank you so much for coming tonight, everyone. Your support in my candidacy means the world to me. I may not be everyone’s first choice for mayor, but I promise you that restoring Star City to a safe place – a city where you don’t have to fear for your children’s safety every time they set foot out the door – _that_ is my top priority as mayor. This city was great before, and it will be again, if we all stand united.”

The crowd breaks into applause, and Felicity stares up at Oliver with pride swelling in her chest. He’d come so far from a mere year ago, when he couldn’t believe that he was deserving of love or happiness, struggling to reconcile with two sides of himself. And now, he believed himself capable of being a beacon of hope for the city, both as Oliver Queen and the Green Arrow.

“This campaign would not be possible without the support of many amazing people. But there is one person who’s always stood by me and supported me.” He pauses and meets her eye, and she knows what he’s going to say from the look in his eyes. “Without her, I don’t even want to know where I’d be. Felicity Smoak. Will you come up here?”

Okay, so maybe she doesn’t know exactly what he’s planning . . . Both confused and amused, Felicity makes her way up to the podium and steps up to stand next to Oliver, taking the hand he holds out to her.

“Felicity,” he says, looking right at her but still talking into the microphone enough for the curious crowd to hear him. “For the last four years, you have been by my side every step of the way. I wouldn’t be standing up here today if it wasn’t for your brain, your support, your love . . . your heart.”

She smiles and feels tears forming behind her eyes. He squeezes her hands and gives her a wink. She squeezes back, prompting him to continue.

“I know you already know where this is going. You are a genius, after all.” She laughs and rolls her eyes.

She’s never going to get tired of hearing him actually joke around – and not at his own expense either, like Ollie used to.

“Felicity.” He says her name, letting it roll off his tongue like a prayer. God, she loves the way he says her name. That’s something else she’ll never tire of. He speaks her name like it’s his favorite word, his favorite sound. And maybe it is. He certainly makes it seem like it, with how he says it every chance he gets.

He steps away from the podium and gets down on one knee in front of her. And _is this real life? Billionaire playboy Oliver Queen proposing like some Hollywood romance movie?_ When did this become her life?

“I know that we haven’t been officially dating for that long. But I do know that I’ve been in love with you since I met you, and that I’ve wanted to marry you for longer than I’m willing to admit. So I’m hoping – even though I will never deserve you – that you are willing to lawfully do what you have for the last four years, and agree to put up with me for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?”

Finally, he says the words she’s been waiting for. The way he’s looking at her, with so much hope and love and _happiness_ – he looks like the sun, and it’s enough to make a girl melt. She gets down on her knees in front of him, meeting his gaze with just as much intensity.

 “Of course I’ll marry you,” she says to only him, completely forgetting about the crowd leeching with reporters and media outlets and Star City Elites. If he’s the sun, outshining everyone else as they fade to black in the background, in that moment she’s a planet gravitating towards him.

He laughs, the sound relieved and happy and _beautiful_. It reminds her of when she flew across town in a billion-dollar tech suit to save his life when the SCPD shot him off a bridge – _was it really less than a year ago?_ – and all he could do was laugh, because he just couldn’t believe that she was real and in front of him and doing what she was.

She cries. She cries from the man who’s never been good with words (and neither has she, just in a different way) who has just made the most beautiful, eloquent speech she’s ever heard. And it’s a cliché, but she’s falling in love with him all over again.

Oliver stands up and reaches a hand down for her to help her up. When they’re both on their feet again, he pulls her in tight for a hug that only he can give her a fluttering feeling low in her belly with.

He pulls away first, and then Felicity registers the cheering of the crowd and the sound of cameras madly snapping pictures.

Oliver ignores it all, instead cupping her face with both hands and pulling her in for a tender kiss that she feels down to her toes. When they break apart, they’re both ever so slightly breathless. Then Oliver starts and reaches into his suit pocket, pulling something out of it with an embarrassed grin.

“I was so nervous I completely forgot about this,” he explains, revealing a small velvet box. Her confusion ebbs and amusement takes its place. He gives her what she could only describe as a pouty frown when she starts laughing.

She lightly whacks him on the chest and he grabs her hand, trapping it there. “You dork! How did you manage to forget the _one_ object involved in a proposal?”

“Hey!” he defends in mock-indignance. “I told you, you make me nervous.”

She stops laughing, feeling a blush creep onto her face. “You’re cute,” she teases, and she might be imagining things through her giddiness, but after she says that she swears she sees a flicker of déjà vu on his face.

But it’s gone as quickly as it comes, and then he’s grinning down at her like _she’s_ the sun and she’s standing on her tippy toes and wrapping her coat-clad arms around his neck to meet him for another kiss.

And then Thea is pushing her way through the crowd, followed by Diggle and the rest of the team, and they’re _engaged_ , and despite all of the trouble with Damien Darhk and the company and the drama of Ray and Sara’s returns from the dead, Felicity is happy and so ready to finally be married to her big dumb self-sacrificing hero _fiancé_ (and _wow, that’s gonna take some getting used to_ ) that she doesn’t even register the aforementioned supervillain’s somehow unnoticeable presence in the crowd.


	2. I'm a liar, and you're a thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After his very public proposal, Oliver has attracted some unwanted attention. Now he has to pay the price.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from "You Stole" by Brand New.  
> Enjoy!

When Felicity had found out she had inherited her boyfriend’s multibillion dollar ex-company, their conversation went something like this:

“I can’t be a CEO!”

“Felicity, you are the strongest, smartest woman I know. You’ve got this.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“You know I can’t lie to you.”

“That is true. But you believe it, so it’s not technically a lie,” she shot back.

She could do this all day if it meant ignoring the fact that she was now the head of a company worth more than all of the tech she’d ever owned. Again, not exactly what she majored in at MIT.

But this was one thing that Oliver did happen to be right about. Felicity settled into the big boss role like a true Queen woman - well, according to Thea. (Marriage wasn’t something the recently domesticated couple had discussed yet, so Felicity blushed and laughed that one off.) Oliver readily agreed, assuring Felicity that she was a million times better than he ever was at the job, and when he was in her position she did most of the work anyway while he - poorly - did his: showing up (sometimes) and looking the part.

So after a while, things began to run a little more smoothly for Oliver and Felicity with her managing late hours at the company; keeping things running smoothly for Team Arrow; and a normal, healthy relationship with Oliver. Felicity was in the best place she’d ever been, both in her professional and personal lives.

Coming back to Starling after five months away, they both felt refreshed, loved, and ready to get back in the crime-fighting business.

Now that they were settled back in to everything, late nights were Felicity’s norm, both with the team and the company. Of course Oliver would always try to lure her home early, saying she was working herself too hard and needed to get more than four hours of sleep a night - which, when they were living on the road, he knew first-hand how cranky she could get when sleep-deprived.

But Felicity was a workaholic, and there were always things that needed to be done. So there were a lot of nights where she would stay at the office and do her Arrow work from there, sometimes only eating if Oliver brought take out to her. Other nights, when he couldn’t make it to see her, being too busy with his own nightly activities, he would call her and (lovingly, he insists) lecture her on healthy eating and sleeping habits, insisting that hers were most definitely not.

Tonight was a night where Oliver went straight home after arrowing because it was only about eight o'clock, and he was determined to have a nice home-cooked meal waiting for instead of take out.

When he had everything started, he called her. Most of their conversation was familiar, following their normal pattern of teasing and gentle chiding.

“Try not to stay too late tonight.”

“I’ll be home in about a half hour… Maybe an hour? Depends on how quickly I can get this thing done. I wanna finish early, though.”

“Or you could leave it for tomorrow and come home now and get some actual food and sleep?”

She laughs and says, “I would love to. But I really have to get this done ASAP. I promise I’ll leave before midnight.”

“11:59 doesn’t count.”

She rolls her eyes even though he can’t see, and begins to make a quip about 11:58 when suddenly she stops.

Oliver hears her sharp gasp.

Confused and automatically kicking into defense mode, he growls, “Felicity?”

She yells his name, but before she can say anything else, the line goes dead.

* * *

Felicity looks up at the doorway at the sound of footsteps. She gasps as she finds herself staring into the eyes of the menace that’s been haunting them for months.

Damien Darhk smiles sadistically at her, and it’s not possible no it’s not possible, but he’s suddenly _right there._ She stumbles backwards, but she’s nearly to the wall now and she has nowhere to run. There’s a freaking magical sociopath in her all but abandoned penthouse office with a terrifyingly gleeful smile on his face.

Felicity vaguely registers Oliver calling her name from the other end of the phone that’s still up to her ear, her knuckles turning white with the death grip she has on it.

She yells Oliver’s name, but then Darhk flicks his wrist and the phone is in his hand.

“Let’s put this away, shall we?” Darhk says, tucking the phone into his suit and stepping closer to her. She’s got nowhere to go, her back to the wall and her desk a few feet in front of her with him blocking her path.

She swallows down her utter _terror_ and takes a miniscule step forward, and asks in a voice that thankfully doesn’t betray her, “What do you want with me?” She’s not sure if this is Green Arrow-related or Oliver Queen-related yet.

Darhk’s grin widens, and he doesn’t notice as she keeps up her slow path forward. “Oh, it’s nothing personal, Miss Smoak. But I swore to Oliver Queen that I would take everything from him if he didn’t cooperate with me. But I didn’t know quite how to go about doing that at first.

“Until last week at the rally, when he so beautifully proposed to you in front of half of the city, and yours truly.” He gestures to himself with a flourish.

Felicity narrows her eyes at him, but keeps moving, determined to get close enough to her desk. “And how did that help you, exactly?”

“Oh, Miss Smoak, I heard you were smart. Haven’t you figured it out yet? By Mr. Queen publicly declaring to the city who he loves and wants to spend his life with, I now know who his greatest weakness is. Don’t take it personally. It’s just . . . business,” he concludes, that grin returning full-force.

But she doesn’t have time for fear, because her chair is right there. She grabs it quickly and shoves it hard into him, not giving him time to avoid it. It hits him hard in the stomach, making him stumble back a few steps and opening a small path to the door.

She runs past him and almost makes it through when he’s suddenly in front of her again.

“Big mistake, Miss Smoak. I’m not a fan of games,” he says, grabbing her and putting his arms around her in a chokehold.

She can’t breathe, she can’t breathe. She’s going to be killed by this madman before Oliver can even get to her because Darhk’s got powers that keep him two steps ahead at all times.

Before the world goes black, though, she feels the air around her drop ten degrees and Darhk loosens his hold on her but keeps his hands on her arms. She looks up and sees the inside of what looks like yet another abandoned factory.

He walks her around a corner and there’s suddenly hundreds of people in uniform. It’s a set-up reminiscent of ARGUS, with the newest computers and technology. Against one wall is a display of weapons – the very same military-grade ones that have been disappearing via the ghosts for months.

She gasps and Darhk releases her, knowing she’s got no way out. Not with his entire team – no, that’s not the word; Darhk is their leader, holding himself high above the rest of them . . . his League-like followers, robotic to the point of being barely human, willing to die for him at all costs– surrounding her with no idea how to get out.

“Miss Smoak, welcome to H.I.V.E.”

* * *

Oliver paces the floor of her office, taking in the disturbed state that screams a sign of struggle, as he dials her number for the millionth time since that last phone call. He impatiently listens to the ringing that seems to last forever. Finally, it stops. But the voice he hears is not the one he needs.

“Ah, Mr. Queen. Lovely fiancé you’ve got here. Well, I suppose I should say, ‘ _I’ve’_ got here,” says Damien Darhk. His voice is oddly businesslike and unnervingly casual. It makes his blood run cold. “It’s a shame you won’t be able to marry her. You see, she won’t be able to attend. She’ll be a little too _dead._ ”

“You son of a bitch. Let her go!” Oliver growls into the phone.

“No, I can’t do that, Mr. Queen. I asked you to back down, and you didn’t. You refused to cooperate, so now I am returning the favor. Say goodbye to your would-be Mrs. Queen,” Darhk taunts.

Then Oliver hears a sound that will haunt him forever: Felicity screaming in pain.

Beside him, Curtis flinches.

Oliver drops the phone and barely manages to stay on his feet. He can’t fall apart. He has to save her. He won’t give up on her, not _ever._

“Curtis, I need your help.”

“O-of course, Mr. Queen. Anything,” the obviously frightened man replies with a weak attempt at bravado.

“I need you to pull up the security footage from earlier tonight. Maybe we can see where he left out of.”

“M-Mr. Queen, I don’t mean to step out of line or anything, but shouldn’t we call the police?”

Oliver lets out a humorless chuckle. Right. He’s talking to the only one in their lives who’s out of the loop with the whole secret-vigilante-thing.

“Curtis, I’m going to tell you this quickly so we can get it over with and save Felicity.”

He looks the other man in the eye and waits for the jerky nod he gets in response.

“I’m the Green Arrow.”

“Okay, not totally surprised there. I mean, I know I said the jaw was off, but it _made sense_ , y’know? Like, you and Felicity are together, and I knew you had to be involved with him in some way. No way she’d be keeping something like that from you. You would have to be pretty –“

“Curtis,” Oliver snaps, shutting the other man up at once. “The security footage,” he reminds, looking pointedly at the camera positioned above their heads.

“Right. Well, this shouldn’t take long. He may be some sort of magician, but he’s also really old – like, a couple hundred years, right? So he’s probably not the best with technology,” Curtis rambles as he nervously fumbles with the camera.

“I don’t think it’s a lack of understanding so much as a lack of care. Darhk has no desire to hide himself away. He seems pretty proud of everything he’s done so far in trying to take over the city,” Oliver notes, half to Curtis, but more to himself.

He’s already going through thousands of worst-case scenarios in his mind of what Felicity could be going through right at that moment.

What she’s _already_ been through at the hands of this untouchable psychopath.

The thought makes his stomach lurch and his knees buckle.

_Keep it together. You will find her._

The thought seems like a lie. He can already feel the familiar darkness and self-loathing creeping back in, the very same darkness he’d thought he was rid of forever after leaving with Felicity six months ago. He knew coming back here was a bad idea. Why hadn’t he listened when even she admitted so? Felicity, with her eternal optimism, mere days in to their return, having only been back at the company for a week, had wanted to give up on their crumbling city.

But Oliver had been more determined than ever by then to save it, reassuring her that the fight would be worth it. And it was only because of her that he felt so.

They were the perfect example, having gone through hell for three years before they finally got to the place they were in now. And after a while, things got easier. Felicity figured out how to get the company back on its feet without firing people, and they adjusted to their nightly crime-fighting while working day jobs in the public eye.

Until tonight.

 _Why_ had he proposed in public? He’d known Darhk was after him, watching for weakness and opportunity. Oliver basically handed her to him on a platter.

“Um, Mr. Queen, I’ve scrubbed through the footage. This is from the time of the break-in,” Curtis says, breaking through Oliver’s spiraling dark thoughts.

They watch together as Felicity struggles against Darhk’s hold, refusing to go down without a fight.

Then in the next second, he has her in his arms in a chokehold, and they disappear right in front of their eyes.

Oliver slams his fist down onto the desk, yelling, “Dammit!” He takes in a deep breath and recollects himself, willing every ounce of his control to keep it together.

“Okay. We have to go,” he says, abruptly turning for the door and stepping around everything that got knocked over.

“Where are we going?” Curtis asks, trailing quickly behind Oliver, frightened but determined to save his selfless boss.

“To the new lair,” Oliver replies as he pushes the elevator button.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have something to say, let me know with some feedback!

**Author's Note:**

> All feedback is highly appreciated (and motivates me to write quicker)!


End file.
